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Washington (CNN)Two presidential front-runners who both call New York home will try to put some distance between themselves and their opponents Tuesday and build momentum heading into the final contests.

Does Trump regain his footing?

Weeks of negative headlines, staff changes and the slow bleed of delegates to Cruz have knocked Trump off his feet, and made a contested Republican convention look more likely.

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But in New York, the real estate mogul is in his element.

Polls show him poised to dust Cruz and Kasich in the state's primary, giving him the opportunity, in an election-night event set to take place at Trump Tower, to reassert his standing as the Republican front-runner.

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Trump is leading by double digits in most polls of the state, but for all his claims in every campaign speech that America will get sick and tired of all the "winning" it'll do with him as president, Trump is now a candidate in need of a big win.

Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

What started out as the summer of Trump soon turned into the autumn of Trump, and as 2015 comes to an end, Donald Trump continues to dominate the Republican field of presidential candidates.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

An image of Trump is seen on the Las Vegas Strip on December 14. Las Vegas was hosting a CNN presidential debate.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump pretends to sleep December 7 as he references fellow candidate Jeb Bush at a Pearl Harbor Day Rally in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. It was here that Trump read a press release calling for a "complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" in light of the San Bernardino terror attacks.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

A group of Muslim-Americans rally in front of New York's Trump Tower on December 20 to protest Trump's proposal to ban Muslims.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

British newspapers showcase reactions to Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States. An online petition to ban Trump from entering Britain garnered more than 300,000 signatures.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump was in the running for Time magazine's Person of the Year and was not pleased when German Chancellor Angela Merkel was selected instead. Alongside a profile on Trump, the publication published a behind-the-scenes video of a photo shoot from August. The video featured blooper-reel moments with Trump's co-star of the shoot, a bald eagle named Uncle Sam. The eagle ruffles its feathers, startling Trump.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump flips his belt buckle while slamming fellow Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson during a 95-minute tirade on November 12. Trump mocked Carson's story that as a boy, he once tried but failed to stab someone only to have the knife broken by a belt buckle. "So I have a belt: Somebody hits me with a belt, it's going in because the belt moves this way. It moves this way, it moves that way," Trump told the crowd in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump appears in a parody of Drake's "Hotline Bling" video while hosting "Saturday Night Live" on November 7. The episode brought in an average of 9.3 million viewers -- the show's biggest audience in years.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Members of Latino organizations march from the Trump Tower to NBC studios in New York to protest Trump's "Saturday Night Live" appearance on November 7.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

A Trump supporter stands across the street from the Latino protest in New York on November 7.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

A man holds a copy of Trump's newest book, "Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again," while he waits to have it signed by Trump outside Trump Tower in New York on November 3.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump invites Colombian-born super fan Myriam Witcher on the stage during a campaign rally in Las Vegas on October 8. "I am Hispanic and I vote for Mr. Trump. We vote for Mr. Trump!" Witcher exclaimed.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump speaks during the campaign rally in Las Vegas on October 8. During the rally, Trump said people were giving him credit for helping force House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to bow out of the race for Speaker of the House.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump is greeted on stage by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a fellow Republican presidential candidate, before speaking at a Washington rally organized by the Tea Party Patriots on September 9.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump asks an audience member to inspect his hair to verify it's real during an event in Greenville, South Carolina, on August 27.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump takes a question from Univision and Fusion anchor Jorge Ramos during a press conference at the Grand River Center in Dubuque, Iowa, on August 25. Earlier, Trump had Ramos removed from the room after the two squabbled over Trump's immigration stance. "Sit down. Sit down. Sit down," Trump said, adding, "Go back to Univision."

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Laci Lamb, 6, declares Trump "awesome" and cheers at a Trump rally in Mobile, Alabama, on August 21. Her mother, Annie, made her outfit. "He's the best candidate we've had in a long time," Annie Lamb said.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump greets fans after the Mobile rally, where more than 30,000 supporters from deep-red Alabama gathered in a football stadium.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump speaks with reporters after arriving at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines on August 15. Trump gave children rides on his helicopter.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump eats a pork chop on a stick and gives a thumbs-up sign to fairgoers while campaigning at the Iowa State Fair on August 15.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump fields a question during the first Republican presidential debate, which was held August 6 in Cleveland. Following the debate, Trump launched what would become an ongoing feud with Fox News host and debate moderator Megyn Kelly, tweeting and retweeting attacks against Kelly into the early hours of the morning.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump takes a break from the campaign trail and visits his golf course Turnberry in Ayr, Scotland, with his daughter Ivanka on July 30.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump talks to the media along the U.S.-Mexico border during a trip to Laredo, Texas, on July 23. This is where Trump first premiered his "Make America Great Again" hat.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump gives out U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham's private cell phone number at a rally in Graham's home state of South Carolina on July 22. He urged attendees to "give it a shot" and call it. The two presidential candidates engaged in a feud in which Graham called Trump a "jackass" and Trump called Graham "a total lightweight."

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

A Trump piñata is set up inside Lorena Robletto's shop in downtown Los Angeles. Piñatas in Trump's image became hot sellers following outrage and anger over his rhetoric about Mexican immigrants.

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Photos:The year Donald Trump took politics by storm

Trump poses with his family after he announced his candidacy June 16 at Trump Tower in New York. Pictured with Trump, from left to right, are Trump's son Eric Trump, daughter in-law Lara Yunaska Trump, son Barron Trump, wife Melania Trump, daughter-in-law Vanessa Haydon Trump, granddaughter Kai Madison, son Donald Trump Jr., grandson Donald John Trump III, and daughter Ivanka Trump. Trump called for erecting a massive wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and said Mexican immigrations are 'bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

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The Texas senator has proven an ability to out-organize Trump at recent state conventions, where he's picked up key victories that could come in handy if the Republican convention goes to multiple ballots in July. Kasich, meanwhile, poses a pesky threat among moderates.

As Trump reshapes his staff for complicated state-by-state delegate selection battles, he'd get a shot of momentum -- and a big pile of delegates -- by easily clearing the 50% hurdle.

The delegate battle

"No New Yorker can vote for Ted Cruz," Trump declared at his rally in Buffalo on Monday night -- or Kasich, for that matter, given the Ohio governor's vote in Congress for the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The other 81 are divvied up three apiece among each of the state's congressional districts. In some areas, Trump is sure to crack 50% and win all three -- but elsewhere, Cruz and Kasich could hold Trump under that mark and limit his delegate edge, or even best him and claim more delegates.

Each district will be closely watched. With Trump's path to 1,237 increasingly narrow and Cruz and Kasich angling to pick off scores of those delegates on the second ballot at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland if Trump doesn't reach that number, every delegate is crucial.

Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware are on deck for next week -- and the campaigns will be studying the results in New York's moderate suburbs and elsewhere to see if there are similar areas where more delegates could be picked off in the contests to come.

Can Clinton score a big margin?

Clinton won election twice from New York to the Senate. She defeated Barack Obama in New York in 2008. And on Tuesday, she'll try to put the Democratic nomination out of Sanders' reach by running up a big margin of victory.

"I am hoping to do really well tomorrow. I am hoping to wrap up the Democratic nomination," Clinton said during a visit to an LGBT phone bank on her behalf on Monday, to raucous applause and chants of "Hillary, Hillary."

She was quick to hedge, saying: "But, but, but -- I am not taking anything for granted. I have to quickly add that before anyone has the wrong impression."

Still, a big win would give Clinton's campaign more ammunition to argue that Sanders has no plausible path to the lead in pledged delegates, or even the popular vote.

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For Sanders, the hope is that New York will follow the national Democratic polls, which have shown the Vermont senator increasingly close to Clinton -- tying or surpassing her in some cases.

But the national polls, at this stage, might not mean much. The majority of the Democratic electorate has already voted, and many of the states left on the calendar have heavy minority populations that tend to benefit Clinton.

A win in New York, though, would give Sanders a way to shake up the psychology of the race -- significantly strengthening his claim that he can still win and potentially tipping Democrats who are still on the fence into his camp, much like challenger winning undecided voters at the late stages of a general election against an incumbent.

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If the answer to either of those questions is "yes," it would mark a significant shift in the race.

The exit polls will reveal whether anything has changed. If it hasn't, there's no real reason to expect the Democratic race overall to be shaken up.

Sanders spent much of his time campaigning in Brooklyn, making it a good spot to watch for signs of a surge that he'd hope to carry into places like Maryland and, later, California.

Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders, right, leads a sit-in organized by the Congress of Racial Equality in 1962. The demonstration was staged to oppose housing segregation at the University of Chicago. It was Chicago's first civil rights sit-in.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders takes the oath of office to become the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, in 1981. He ran as an independent and won the race by 10 votes.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders, right, tosses a baseball before a minor-league game in Vermont in 1984. U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, center, was also on hand.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

In 1987, Sanders and a group of Vermont musicians recorded a spoken-word folk album. "We Shall Overcome" was first released as a cassette that sold about 600 copies. When Sanders entered the U.S. presidential race in 2015, the album surged in online sales. But at a CNN town hall, Sanders said, "It's the worst album ever recorded."

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders reads mail at his campaign office in Burlington in 1990. He was running for the U.S. House of Representatives after an unsuccessful bid in 1988.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

In 1990, Sanders defeated U.S. Rep. Peter Smith in the race for Vermont's lone House seat. He won by 16 percentage points.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders sits next to President Bill Clinton in 1993 before the Congressional Progressive Caucus held a meeting at the White House. Sanders co-founded the caucus in 1991 and served as its first chairman.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Barack Obama, then a U.S. senator, endorses Sanders' Senate bid at a rally in Burlington in 2006.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders takes part in a swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in January 2007. He won his Senate seat with 65% of the vote.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders chats with Dr. John Matthew, director of The Health Center in Plainfield, Vermont, in May 2007. Sanders was in Plainfield to celebrate a new source of federal funding for The Health Center.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders speaks to reporters in 2010 about the Obama administration's push to extend Bush-era tax cuts. Three days later, Sanders held a filibuster against the reinstatement of the tax cuts. His speech, which lasted more than eight hours, was published in book form in 2011. It is called "The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class."

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders and U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, walk to a news conference on Capitol Hill in 2014. Sanders was chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

In March 2015, Sanders speaks in front of letters and petitions asking Congress to reject proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

In July 2015, two months after announcing he would be seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for President, Sanders spoke to nearly 10,000 supporters in Madison, Wisconsin. "Tonight we have made a little bit of history," he said. "You may know that some 25 candidates are running for President of the United States, but tonight we have more people at a meeting for a candidate for President of the United States than any other candidate has."

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Seconds after Sanders took the stage for a campaign rally in August 2015, a dozen protesters from Seattle's Black Lives Matter chapter jumped barricades and grabbed the microphone from the senator. Holding a banner that said "Smash Racism," two of the protesters -- Marissa Johnson, left, and Mara Jacqueline Willaford -- began to address the crowd.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders shakes hands with Hillary Clinton at a Democratic debate in Las Vegas on October 13. The hand shake came after Sanders' take on the Clinton email scandal. "Let me say something that may not be great politics, but the secretary is right -- and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about the damn emails," Sanders said. "Enough of the emails, let's talk about the real issues facing the United States of America."

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders embraces Remaz Abdelgader, a Muslim student, during an October 2015 event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Asked what he would do about Islamophobia in the United States, Sanders said he was determined to fight racism and "build a nation in which we all stand together as one people."

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders waves while walking in a Veterans Day parade in Lebanon, New Hampshire, in November 2015.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders sits with Killer Mike at the Busy Bee Cafe in Atlanta in November 2015. That evening, the rapper and activist introduced Sanders at a campaign event in the city. "I'm talking about a revolutionary," Killer Mike told supporters. "In my heart of hearts, I truly believe that Sen. Bernie Sanders is the right man to lead this country."

Sanders speaks at a campaign rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on March 7. Sanders won the state's primary the next day, an upset that delivered a sharp blow to Clinton's hopes of quickly securing the nomination.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders speaks at a campaign event in New York's Washington Square Park on April 13.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders speaks at a rally in Santa Monica, California, on June 7. He pledged to stay in the Democratic race even though Hillary Clinton secured the delegates she needed to become the presumptive nominee.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders endorses Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on July 12.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Sanders addresses delegates on the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 25.

One factor that could significantly hamper Sanders: New York is a closed primary, which means only registered Democrats can participate -- blocking him from bringing in the infusion of independents that are often critical to his victories.

Sanders said on CNN's "New Day" on Monday that he'll win if voter turnout is "very high" -- but he acknowledged that, with a closed primary and Clinton's edge among loyal Democrats, "we're kind of spotting Secretary Clinton a whole lot in that regard."

Hometown heroes

One unique feature of New York's primary: Three of the remaining five presidential candidates have lived in the state -- and they're fond of reminding voters of it.

It'll make for interesting election-night viewing to see whether each wins those areas.